Haynesville Shale

The Haynesville Shale is a rock formation mainly composed of consolidated clay-sized particles deposited and buried in northwest Louisiana and East Texas more than 170 million years ago during the Upper Jurassic age. It is characterized by ultra-low permeability but has a high porosity compared to other shales.

The Haynesville Shale came into prominence in 2008 as a potentially major shale gas resource. Producing natural gas from the Haynesville Shale involves drilling wells from 10,000 feet and to 13,000 feet deep. The formation is deeper in areas nearer the Gulf of Mexico. The Haynesville Shale has recently been estimated to be the largest natural gas field in the contiguous 48 states with an estimated 250 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. Production has boomed since late March 2008, creating a number of new millionaires in the Shreveport, Louisiana region.

Oil And Gas Boom Plays In The USA And Canada

Antrim Shale ANWAR Oil Shale - Austin Chalk - Avalon Shale -Bakken Oil Shale - Barnett Shale- Bone Spring - Bossier Shale -Brazil Oil Field - Cardium Shale - Chainman Shale - Chattanooga Shale -Collingwood Shale - Cumnock Shale - Duvernay Shale -Eagle Ford Shale - Exshaw Shale - Fayetteville Shale - Granite Wash - Green River Basin Oil Shale - Haynesville Shale - Horn River Shale - Huron Shale - Kern County Oil Field - Leonard Shale- Marcellus Shale - Monterey Shale - Montney Shale -Niobrara Shale - Permian Basin - Piceance Basin - Smackover Brown Dense Formation - Spraberry Field - Tuscaloosa Marine Shale -Utica Shale - Wolfberry Trend - Wolfcamp Shale - Woodford Shale -Oil Sands - China Shale - Mineral Rights - Index of Shale

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Argentinean Shale Gas Find to Boost Reserves in Future

Buried in the February issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology is a headline with very impressive news: “The oil and gas producing company YPF announced the discovery of an estimated 4.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of shale gas in the Neuquina basin of Argentina which could supply enough clean burning natural gas for the next 50 years.” This discovery is sorely needed because proven natural gas reserves in Argentina have been declining for the past 7 years. As the graph below shows, extrapolating current reserve depletion and internal natural gas consumption indicate Argentina is not going to have enough reserves to meet internal demand sometime before the year 2020.

It might be tempting to conclude that YPF’s shale gas find will fix this problem. A closer look at the Argentinean natural gas industry shows that the operators with experience producing from shale gas do not exist. Additionally, the unconventional gas industry is in its infancy, and the natural gas pricing structure is not very favorable for capital-intensive shale gas developments. However, YPF’s discovery is in the Neuquina basin where existing gas producing infrastructure is already in place. The geology aspects of the two different shale formations are world class and analogous with the Marcellus and Haynesville shale plays in the United States. With Argentina deriving over 50% of internal energy consumption from natural gas, bringing shale gas to market will not be a quick or easy task, but it might be the key to overcome the 2020 natural gas crunch.


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